Obvious often isn't.
It’s pretty easy to dismiss our own thoughts and observations as obvious. Why bother telling everyone else? It’s clear enough; they can see it for themselves. To actually voice it or write it would be pithy at best.
Then, when we do open our mouths or pick up a pen, the feedback comes quickly: that was novel! or brilliant! or different! or any number of things that make it clear that, what was obvious to you wasn’t to everyone else.
And then we forget and do it all again.
The thing is: we all do this. It’s a wonderful thing individually to learn how to get past the sense of obviousness and just put it all out there, but the real multiplier is to help those around you: your team, your reports, your organization, your peers. Try a simple prompt when next thinking through a project: “What’s obvious about this that you aren’t saying?” – and see where things go from there.
You might be surprised. And so might they.
(Derek Sivers has a great writeup on this, too.)